Sunday, January 21, 2007

Just a Ledge

On the corner of Guadalupe and 8th Street, gatherings of a variety of people come and go at the entrance of the John Henry Faulk Library. At the entrance, there is a large piece of artwork in the middle and plantation beds to the left and right of the entrance.

As the afternoon sun sheds warmth on the concrete ledge, two friends leave the library to take a short break from their long hours of readings, and sit on the ledge. While they sit and relax, they gossip about their weekly activities and share a laugh here and there.

Quickly, the girl checks her watch to see how much time they have left in their break; there is still plenty of time. The two friends continue to relax, converse, and enjoy the sunny outdoors. As time goes on, the relaxation in the sun is too grand for the friends to go back inside, so they decide to forget about the readings and just sit and enjoy life.

An old man enters the scene. He comes to retrieve his bicycle from the bicycle rack. Thus, he rests his backpack on the ledge to free up his hands, and begins to unshackle his bike from his lock. The two friends watch as the old man frantically fidgets his bike loose.

Finally, after a push and pull here and there, the bike is free. The old man begins to take his bike out from the rack and prepares for this departure. However, he is stopped by another man, a man with a ponytail. They begin talking. The ponytail man argues with the old man, claiming that he stole his bike! The ponytail man starts a commotion, they begin to argue, of course the old man knows that the bike is his, and the ponytail man was just trying to start a commotion to add some spice to his mundane life. Perhaps, the ponytail man just wanted to get a little attention. As they continue to argue, the two friends watch with amusement. After a few minutes, the old man gets fed up, and takes his bike and leaves the scene. The ponytail man shouts a few rude comments at the old man, before he leaves the scene as well. The two friends quickly turn their heads, to avoid eye contact with the two men, and pretended that they didn’t see anything. They didn’t want to get involved in the nonsense.

As the two men leave the scene of the ledge, the two friends begin to discuss what had just happened. They share a laugh here and there. Finally, they stand up and reenter the library.